California will mark the six-month anniversary of recreational marijuana sales on Saturday with customers and the hashish trade complaining about the whole lot from steep costs to excessive taxes to a shortage of licensed pot outlets.

And issues may worsen.

Although they’ve identified concerning the deadline for months, many marijuana corporations have been sluggish to submit their merchandise to laboratories to see in the event that they meet state-imposed high quality requirements that go into impact on July 1st.

Industry officers say that’s making a bottleneck that might result in spot shortages of hashish, significantly in San Diego the place client demand is anticipated to soar through the summer time vacationer season. Comic-Con alone will draw at the very least 135,000 guests in mid-July.

The scarcity would signify an inconvenience for customers. But “it could be an extinction event for companies whose products don’t turn out be be compliant,” mentioned Pamela Epstein, chief govt officer of Green Wise Consulting, a Los Angeles-based agency that serves the hashish trade.

“They might not have enough money to recover.”

The scenario led the United Cannabis Business Association to ship a letter to Gov. Jerry Brown on Friday asking him to delay the beginning date of the brand new testing and product packaging guidelines go into impact on Sunday.

The group, talking on behalf of practically 150 corporations, mentioned that there aren’t sufficient labs to deal with the testing. The affiliation additionally mentioned corporations must destroy practically $400 million in present merchandise that don’t meet the brand new requirements, based on the Associated Press.

Consumers additionally would really feel the crunch.

“Prices will shoot through the roof if there’s a shortage. People have already been riding a roller coaster, seeing prices escalate, then bottom out, followed by flash sales, or taxes they didn’t expect,” Epstein mentioned.

“I’m optimistic that things will get better. But there’s a lot of problems to work through first.”

The issues have raised so much of questions,a number of which have been addressed right here with enter from authorities regulators and the marijuana trade.

Q: California is one of the most important marijuana cultivators in the world. How may it’s dealing with a potential scarcity of industrial hashish?

A: California legalized the sale of medical hashish in 1996. But the trade was very loosely regulated. And the standard of the pot that made it to diverse significantly.

Everything modified in late 2016 when California voters overwhelming permitted Proposition 64, which made it authorized for people to own and develop small quantities of marijuana. The regulation additionally cleared the best way for the sale of recreational hashish in licensed shops. And it required testing requirements for industrial weed. The state is attempting to guard customers from things like pesticides and solvents.

The state and the hashish trade spent so much of time debating the requirements. It appeared like issues have been getting labored out; the state initially mentioned that uniform purity and efficiency testing would start on January 1, 2018.

Then issues bought slowed down and the date was pushed to July 1st.

“We really thought testing was going to begin in January,” mentioned Greg Magdoff, chief govt officer of PharmLabs, a San Diego-based firm that’s licensed to do such work.

“We employed drivers up and down the state as a result of we have been informed that we needed to have our personal staff decide up the samples.

“We’re ramping up once more. It’s lengthy nights and weekends. There’s so much of stress.”

Q: Is it true that there will not be sufficient labs to deal with the testing?

A: The reply isn’t clear.

There are 31 labs statewide, together with three in San Diego. The Union-Tribune visited PharmLabs on Friday and located employees hustling to deal with a crush of enterprise.

Some corporations have already come into compliance, together with OutCo, a cultivator, distributor and retailer close to El Cajon.

“Smart companies are ready to go,” mentioned Virginia Falces, OutCo’s communications director. “But we’ll have to see what next week brings.”

Q: In many areas of California, there aren’t any licensed recreational marijuana shops. Why? The public mentioned sure to weed when it permitted Proposition 64.

A: Proposition 64 additionally says that counties, city and cities have the choice of banning the sale of recreational marijuana, which additionally is named adult-use pot. The provision was added to the initiative to make it extra palatable to voters.

The stigma hooked up to marijuana has been fading. But statewide, about 70 p.c of communities have mentioned no to recreational sales.

San Diego has been a notable exception. There are greater than a dozen licensed shops right here, and extra are anticipated. But that is the one place in the county the place these shops exist.

“Many cities don’t want to be first to jump in; they want to see how things go,” mentioned Dallin Young, govt director of the Association of Cannabis Professionals, a San Diego-based commerce group.

Q: Are issues more likely to change?

A: It’s potential, if not going.

In March 2017, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted Three-2 to ban new marijuana amenities from opening they usually moved to section out present ones. But that might change in November if voters select pro-marijuana candidates. Two board seats are on the poll.

At the identical time, Chula Vista voters may approve a plan that may permit native corporations to develop, manufacture and promote marijuana.

Public acceptance of marijuana has been rising quickly. On June 26th, Oklahoma permitted the sale of medical marijuana, making hashish authorized, to various levels, in greater than 30 states. Michigan — dwelling to about 10 million individuals — will vote on recreational pot in November. The measure has been polling favorably.

But there are so much of frayed nerves in the hashish trade, partly as a result of U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions mentioned in January that he wouldn’t abide by the Obama administration’s determination to not prosecute corporations that promote pot in states the place it’s authorized to take action.

Sessions was overruled by President Trump in April. But the entire matter gave traders a motive to be further cautious about pumping cash into hashish.

Marijuana additionally remains to be listed as a Schedule I drug on the federal stage, which locations it in the identical class as heroin. That has largely shut the hashish trade out of the banking system. Banks don’t need antagonize the federal government by accepting marijuana cash.

There’s been so much of speak about making a particular financial institution in California to satisfy the hashish trade’s want. But for the second, it’s simply that — speak.

Union-Tribune reporters Gustavo Solis, David Garrick and Merrie Monteagudo contributed to this story. The Associated Press additionally contributed to this report.